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This thread has been linked to the game 'Brian Lara International Cricket 2007'.
This game seems a fitting tribute to the great cricket legend Brian Lara, who retired this year after the World Cup, it’s a fine piece of work from Codemasters that will satisfy old cricket fans and rookies to the game alike, and undoubtedly the old West Indies skipper would be proud to put his name to it.
It’s been a long couple of years for cricket fans to wait for Brian Lara’s next game, the last being in 2005. It would seem Codemaster were happy to wait for the launch of the Xbox 360 before unleashing International Cricket 2007 and boy I am glad they did: I really don’t believe that if they had released it prior to the 360’s launch, it would have looked or felt anything as amazing as it does.
The first thing to take note of, which is new to the series, is that International Cricket 2007 has the official ICC Word Cup 2007 license, this means no longer will regular viewers of the game spend vast amounts of time editing the names of players to what they are meant to be. No longer will there be confusion between Flantiff and Flintoff! Yes, all the stars feature in the game, including the greats such as Kevin Pietersen, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and, naturally, Brian Lara. This really adds to the authenticity of the game and creates realism that can’t be rivalled, allowing players to re-enact classic moments of cricket history such as when the great man Lara reached the highest test score ever.
Aiding the awesome sense of realism are the graphics, which are, bluntly, simply stunning. Every detail can be examined and nothing appears to be missed out. The stadiums, from across the world, including the infamous Lords among the 21 featured, all appear to be miraculously replicated. The teams’ kits too all appear as they do in real life, thanks to the ICC license being given to the game. The amount of detail created, which is visible in all aspects of the game from the players and umpires to the cricket grounds and kits, creates an atmosphere that could rival visiting your local county club.
Sound too adds to the overall affect of the game’s inner atmosphere, crowds from stadiums across the world contribute to International Cricket 2007. For instance when a wicket is taken of a touring side the cheers of the home side almost deafen the commentary, which also, might I add, has been improved significantly, no longer will the commentators repeat what their co-host has said a few moments before for example.
So it would seem instead of focusing on gameplay International Cricket 2007 has gone out all guns blazing on the graphics and sound effects, however, you’d be wrong to think like this. Whereas 2005 focused greater on the gameplay than the graphics and overall realism, 2007 manages to incorporate both, creating a masterpiece.
In the old game I often found myself quite frustrated that I couldn’t play the exact shot I wanted to, or not play a shot at all in some cases. Players of the previous game will know that you couldn’t just leave a shot: if you did so the batsman’s confidence would take a blow for instance. However, Codemaster have seemed to listen in on fans’ suggestions and have made wonderful changes that offer much more freedom to the player, allowing you to play shots that might not have been so orthodox in previous years, but are much like how the renowned Kevin Pietersen likes to bat.
Fielding too has been improved, again I found myself being angry in the 2005 game that whilst at the striker’s end the batsman would quickly dash into the crease to prevent a run out opportunity, at the other end his partner would be taking a leisurely stroll into the bowler’s end crease, fully knowing that I couldn’t run him out because the option simply was available. However, to my relief this has now been added, along with the ability to manually take slip and close-field catches, that previously the computer would take control of and, might I add, drop too often for my liking.
With these two much needed improvements to the gameplay, players can now both play a spectacular sweep shot like Strauss and carry out a classy close-field catch manually like the great Collingwood.
International Cricket 2007 also feels like a groundskeeper has had a good long chat with the developers of the game about how a pitch should actually play when in certain conditions and after an amount of time. IC 2005 seemed to want to pick up on this and it showed the player that the pitch was deteriorating, which meant that spinners could encourage more turn from the pitch, but not much else could be taken from a tiring wicket, whereas in reality a fast bowler like Harmison might be able to get the cherry to bounce a little harder. The new game has conquered this almost perfectly, the ball now reacts to different pitch types just like it would in real life, this change now allows a huge variety of spin, swing and pace bowling. It is even possible to create batsmen’s dreaded nightmare of reverse swing.
Bowling itself seems to offer a lot more freedom to the player, with a greater variation of deliveries available and, of course, you can create your own type of unique delivery to catch the batsman off guard. You might even get Monty Panesar to bowl the infamous doosra! However, fantastic bowling is all well and good, but is it now possible to set the perfect field to complement it? Luckily it is! Instead of having to go through a long process of selecting various field types through one menu after another, it is now much easier with fielders being controlled at the touch of a button whilst in-game.
If we’re honest, to the experienced gamer, IC 2005 was relatively easy to complete. As soon as a player had learned exactly where to pitch a ball, or slog the ball, it was pretty easy to get an entire team out and tally up a huge innings total, whatever the opposition team’s ranking in the world. Often I’d find myself winning by an entire innings and quite a lot of runs, which while this could be considered impressive to a cricketer, it wasn’t as fun as it could be, as every team I faced I almost always claimed victory. Codemaster once again to the rescue! They have taken the game’s AI apart and have successfully built it up again so now the opposition will present a real challenge and it won’t be so easy to build an innings of 400 plus off just 30 overs! This ensures a hard, decent and realistic battle and such battles are fun and victory in them is far more impressive.
I don’t believe I’ve really said a bad word about Brian Lara’s International Cricket 2007 in this review, which is unusual because usually every game offers a little something that isn’t exactly smooth or perfect, but this title really does seem to offer exactly what I was looking for, a great game which isn’t easily won without some skill and tactics. To me the graphics, sounds and all new found authenticity are just spectacular bonuses. If you’re looking for a cricket game on rainy days, this is the one.
For me this game has crossed the boundary rope without bouncing once.
It’s been a long couple of years for cricket fans to wait for Brian Lara’s next game, the last being in 2005. It would seem Codemaster were happy to wait for the launch of the Xbox 360 before unleashing International Cricket 2007 and boy I am glad they did: I really don’t believe that if they had released it prior to the 360’s launch, it would have looked or felt anything as amazing as it does.
The first thing to take note of, which is new to the series, is that International Cricket 2007 has the official ICC Word Cup 2007 license, this means no longer will regular viewers of the game spend vast amounts of time editing the names of players to what they are meant to be. No longer will there be confusion between Flantiff and Flintoff! Yes, all the stars feature in the game, including the greats such as Kevin Pietersen, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and, naturally, Brian Lara. This really adds to the authenticity of the game and creates realism that can’t be rivalled, allowing players to re-enact classic moments of cricket history such as when the great man Lara reached the highest test score ever.
Aiding the awesome sense of realism are the graphics, which are, bluntly, simply stunning. Every detail can be examined and nothing appears to be missed out. The stadiums, from across the world, including the infamous Lords among the 21 featured, all appear to be miraculously replicated. The teams’ kits too all appear as they do in real life, thanks to the ICC license being given to the game. The amount of detail created, which is visible in all aspects of the game from the players and umpires to the cricket grounds and kits, creates an atmosphere that could rival visiting your local county club.
Sound too adds to the overall affect of the game’s inner atmosphere, crowds from stadiums across the world contribute to International Cricket 2007. For instance when a wicket is taken of a touring side the cheers of the home side almost deafen the commentary, which also, might I add, has been improved significantly, no longer will the commentators repeat what their co-host has said a few moments before for example.
So it would seem instead of focusing on gameplay International Cricket 2007 has gone out all guns blazing on the graphics and sound effects, however, you’d be wrong to think like this. Whereas 2005 focused greater on the gameplay than the graphics and overall realism, 2007 manages to incorporate both, creating a masterpiece.
In the old game I often found myself quite frustrated that I couldn’t play the exact shot I wanted to, or not play a shot at all in some cases. Players of the previous game will know that you couldn’t just leave a shot: if you did so the batsman’s confidence would take a blow for instance. However, Codemaster have seemed to listen in on fans’ suggestions and have made wonderful changes that offer much more freedom to the player, allowing you to play shots that might not have been so orthodox in previous years, but are much like how the renowned Kevin Pietersen likes to bat.
Fielding too has been improved, again I found myself being angry in the 2005 game that whilst at the striker’s end the batsman would quickly dash into the crease to prevent a run out opportunity, at the other end his partner would be taking a leisurely stroll into the bowler’s end crease, fully knowing that I couldn’t run him out because the option simply was available. However, to my relief this has now been added, along with the ability to manually take slip and close-field catches, that previously the computer would take control of and, might I add, drop too often for my liking.
With these two much needed improvements to the gameplay, players can now both play a spectacular sweep shot like Strauss and carry out a classy close-field catch manually like the great Collingwood.
International Cricket 2007 also feels like a groundskeeper has had a good long chat with the developers of the game about how a pitch should actually play when in certain conditions and after an amount of time. IC 2005 seemed to want to pick up on this and it showed the player that the pitch was deteriorating, which meant that spinners could encourage more turn from the pitch, but not much else could be taken from a tiring wicket, whereas in reality a fast bowler like Harmison might be able to get the cherry to bounce a little harder. The new game has conquered this almost perfectly, the ball now reacts to different pitch types just like it would in real life, this change now allows a huge variety of spin, swing and pace bowling. It is even possible to create batsmen’s dreaded nightmare of reverse swing.
Bowling itself seems to offer a lot more freedom to the player, with a greater variation of deliveries available and, of course, you can create your own type of unique delivery to catch the batsman off guard. You might even get Monty Panesar to bowl the infamous doosra! However, fantastic bowling is all well and good, but is it now possible to set the perfect field to complement it? Luckily it is! Instead of having to go through a long process of selecting various field types through one menu after another, it is now much easier with fielders being controlled at the touch of a button whilst in-game.
If we’re honest, to the experienced gamer, IC 2005 was relatively easy to complete. As soon as a player had learned exactly where to pitch a ball, or slog the ball, it was pretty easy to get an entire team out and tally up a huge innings total, whatever the opposition team’s ranking in the world. Often I’d find myself winning by an entire innings and quite a lot of runs, which while this could be considered impressive to a cricketer, it wasn’t as fun as it could be, as every team I faced I almost always claimed victory. Codemaster once again to the rescue! They have taken the game’s AI apart and have successfully built it up again so now the opposition will present a real challenge and it won’t be so easy to build an innings of 400 plus off just 30 overs! This ensures a hard, decent and realistic battle and such battles are fun and victory in them is far more impressive.
I don’t believe I’ve really said a bad word about Brian Lara’s International Cricket 2007 in this review, which is unusual because usually every game offers a little something that isn’t exactly smooth or perfect, but this title really does seem to offer exactly what I was looking for, a great game which isn’t easily won without some skill and tactics. To me the graphics, sounds and all new found authenticity are just spectacular bonuses. If you’re looking for a cricket game on rainy days, this is the one.
For me this game has crossed the boundary rope without bouncing once.
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This game seems a fitting tribute to the great cricket legend Brian Lara, who retired this year after the World Cup, it’s a fine piece of work from Codemasters that will satisfy old cricket fans and rookies to the game alike, and undoubtedly the old West Indies skipper would be proud to put his name to it.
It’s been a long couple of years for cricket fans to wait for Brian Lara’s next game, the last being in 2005. It would seem Codemaster were happy to wait for the launch of the Xbox 360 before unleashing International Cricket 2007 and boy I am glad they did: I really don’t believe that if they had released it prior to the 360’s launch, it would have looked or felt anything as amazing as it does.
The first thing to take note of, which is new to the series, is that International Cricket 2007 has the official ICC Word Cup 2007 license, this means no longer will regular viewers of the game spend vast amounts of time editing the names of players to what they are meant to be. No longer will there be confusion between Flantiff and Flintoff! Yes, all the stars feature in the game, including the greats such as Kevin Pietersen, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and, naturally, Brian Lara. This really adds to the authenticity of the game and creates realism that can’t be rivalled, allowing players to re-enact classic moments of cricket history such as when the great man Lara reached the highest test score ever.
Aiding the awesome sense of realism are the graphics, which are, bluntly, simply stunning. Every detail can be examined and nothing appears to be missed out. The stadiums, from across the world, including the infamous Lords among the 21 featured, all appear to be miraculously replicated. The teams’ kits too all appear as they do in real life, thanks to the ICC license being given to the game. The amount of detail created, which is visible in all aspects of the game from the players and umpires to the cricket grounds and kits, creates an atmosphere that could rival visiting your local county club.
Sound too adds to the overall affect of the game’s inner atmosphere, crowds from stadiums across the world contribute to International Cricket 2007. For instance when a wicket is taken of a touring side the cheers of the home side almost deafen the commentary, which also, might I add, has been improved significantly, no longer will the commentators repeat what their co-host has said a few moments before for example.
So it would seem instead of focusing on gameplay International Cricket 2007 has gone out all guns blazing on the graphics and sound effects, however, you’d be wrong to think like this. Whereas 2005 focused greater on the gameplay than the graphics and overall realism, 2007 manages to incorporate both, creating a masterpiece.
In the old game I often found myself quite frustrated that I couldn’t play the exact shot I wanted to, or not play a shot at all in some cases. Players of the previous game will know that you couldn’t just leave a shot: if you did so the batsman’s confidence would take a blow for instance. However, Codemaster have seemed to listen in on fans’ suggestions and have made wonderful changes that offer much more freedom to the player, allowing you to play shots that might not have been so orthodox in previous years, but are much like how the renowned Kevin Pietersen likes to bat.
Fielding too has been improved, again I found myself being angry in the 2005 game that whilst at the striker’s end the batsman would quickly dash into the crease to prevent a run out opportunity, at the other end his partner would be taking a leisurely stroll into the bowler’s end crease, fully knowing that I couldn’t run him out because the option simply was available. However, to my relief this has now been added, along with the ability to manually take slip and close-field catches, that previously the computer would take control of and, might I add, drop too often for my liking.
With these two much needed improvements to the gameplay, players can now both play a spectacular sweep shot like Strauss and carry out a classy close-field catch manually like the great Collingwood.
International Cricket 2007 also feels like a groundskeeper has had a good long chat with the developers of the game about how a pitch should actually play when in certain conditions and after an amount of time. IC 2005 seemed to want to pick up on this and it showed the player that the pitch was deteriorating, which meant that spinners could encourage more turn from the pitch, but not much else could be taken from a tiring wicket, whereas in reality a fast bowler like Harmison might be able to get the cherry to bounce a little harder. The new game has conquered this almost perfectly, the ball now reacts to different pitch types just like it would in real life, this change now allows a huge variety of spin, swing and pace bowling. It is even possible to create batsmen’s dreaded nightmare of reverse swing.
Bowling itself seems to offer a lot more freedom to the player, with a greater variation of deliveries available and, of course, you can create your own type of unique delivery to catch the batsman off guard. You might even get Monty Panesar to bowl the infamous doosra! However, fantastic bowling is all well and good, but is it now possible to set the perfect field to complement it? Luckily it is! Instead of having to go through a long process of selecting various field types through one menu after another, it is now much easier with fielders being controlled at the touch of a button whilst in-game.
If we’re honest, to the experienced gamer, IC 2005 was relatively easy to complete. As soon as a player had learned exactly where to pitch a ball, or slog the ball, it was pretty easy to get an entire team out and tally up a huge innings total, whatever the opposition team’s ranking in the world. Often I’d find myself winning by an entire innings and quite a lot of runs, which while this could be considered impressive to a cricketer, it wasn’t as fun as it could be, as every team I faced I almost always claimed victory. Codemaster once again to the rescue! They have taken the game’s AI apart and have successfully built it up again so now the opposition will present a real challenge and it won’t be so easy to build an innings of 400 plus off just 30 overs! This ensures a hard, decent and realistic battle and such battles are fun and victory in them is far more impressive.
I don’t believe I’ve really said a bad word about Brian Lara’s International Cricket 2007 in this review, which is unusual because usually every game offers a little something that isn’t exactly smooth or perfect, but this title really does seem to offer exactly what I was looking for, a great game which isn’t easily won without some skill and tactics. To me the graphics, sounds and all new found authenticity are just spectacular bonuses. If you’re looking for a cricket game on rainy days, this is the one.
For me this game has crossed the boundary rope without bouncing once.
It’s been a long couple of years for cricket fans to wait for Brian Lara’s next game, the last being in 2005. It would seem Codemaster were happy to wait for the launch of the Xbox 360 before unleashing International Cricket 2007 and boy I am glad they did: I really don’t believe that if they had released it prior to the 360’s launch, it would have looked or felt anything as amazing as it does.
The first thing to take note of, which is new to the series, is that International Cricket 2007 has the official ICC Word Cup 2007 license, this means no longer will regular viewers of the game spend vast amounts of time editing the names of players to what they are meant to be. No longer will there be confusion between Flantiff and Flintoff! Yes, all the stars feature in the game, including the greats such as Kevin Pietersen, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and, naturally, Brian Lara. This really adds to the authenticity of the game and creates realism that can’t be rivalled, allowing players to re-enact classic moments of cricket history such as when the great man Lara reached the highest test score ever.
Aiding the awesome sense of realism are the graphics, which are, bluntly, simply stunning. Every detail can be examined and nothing appears to be missed out. The stadiums, from across the world, including the infamous Lords among the 21 featured, all appear to be miraculously replicated. The teams’ kits too all appear as they do in real life, thanks to the ICC license being given to the game. The amount of detail created, which is visible in all aspects of the game from the players and umpires to the cricket grounds and kits, creates an atmosphere that could rival visiting your local county club.
Sound too adds to the overall affect of the game’s inner atmosphere, crowds from stadiums across the world contribute to International Cricket 2007. For instance when a wicket is taken of a touring side the cheers of the home side almost deafen the commentary, which also, might I add, has been improved significantly, no longer will the commentators repeat what their co-host has said a few moments before for example.
So it would seem instead of focusing on gameplay International Cricket 2007 has gone out all guns blazing on the graphics and sound effects, however, you’d be wrong to think like this. Whereas 2005 focused greater on the gameplay than the graphics and overall realism, 2007 manages to incorporate both, creating a masterpiece.
In the old game I often found myself quite frustrated that I couldn’t play the exact shot I wanted to, or not play a shot at all in some cases. Players of the previous game will know that you couldn’t just leave a shot: if you did so the batsman’s confidence would take a blow for instance. However, Codemaster have seemed to listen in on fans’ suggestions and have made wonderful changes that offer much more freedom to the player, allowing you to play shots that might not have been so orthodox in previous years, but are much like how the renowned Kevin Pietersen likes to bat.
Fielding too has been improved, again I found myself being angry in the 2005 game that whilst at the striker’s end the batsman would quickly dash into the crease to prevent a run out opportunity, at the other end his partner would be taking a leisurely stroll into the bowler’s end crease, fully knowing that I couldn’t run him out because the option simply was available. However, to my relief this has now been added, along with the ability to manually take slip and close-field catches, that previously the computer would take control of and, might I add, drop too often for my liking.
With these two much needed improvements to the gameplay, players can now both play a spectacular sweep shot like Strauss and carry out a classy close-field catch manually like the great Collingwood.
International Cricket 2007 also feels like a groundskeeper has had a good long chat with the developers of the game about how a pitch should actually play when in certain conditions and after an amount of time. IC 2005 seemed to want to pick up on this and it showed the player that the pitch was deteriorating, which meant that spinners could encourage more turn from the pitch, but not much else could be taken from a tiring wicket, whereas in reality a fast bowler like Harmison might be able to get the cherry to bounce a little harder. The new game has conquered this almost perfectly, the ball now reacts to different pitch types just like it would in real life, this change now allows a huge variety of spin, swing and pace bowling. It is even possible to create batsmen’s dreaded nightmare of reverse swing.
Bowling itself seems to offer a lot more freedom to the player, with a greater variation of deliveries available and, of course, you can create your own type of unique delivery to catch the batsman off guard. You might even get Monty Panesar to bowl the infamous doosra! However, fantastic bowling is all well and good, but is it now possible to set the perfect field to complement it? Luckily it is! Instead of having to go through a long process of selecting various field types through one menu after another, it is now much easier with fielders being controlled at the touch of a button whilst in-game.
If we’re honest, to the experienced gamer, IC 2005 was relatively easy to complete. As soon as a player had learned exactly where to pitch a ball, or slog the ball, it was pretty easy to get an entire team out and tally up a huge innings total, whatever the opposition team’s ranking in the world. Often I’d find myself winning by an entire innings and quite a lot of runs, which while this could be considered impressive to a cricketer, it wasn’t as fun as it could be, as every team I faced I almost always claimed victory. Codemaster once again to the rescue! They have taken the game’s AI apart and have successfully built it up again so now the opposition will present a real challenge and it won’t be so easy to build an innings of 400 plus off just 30 overs! This ensures a hard, decent and realistic battle and such battles are fun and victory in them is far more impressive.
I don’t believe I’ve really said a bad word about Brian Lara’s International Cricket 2007 in this review, which is unusual because usually every game offers a little something that isn’t exactly smooth or perfect, but this title really does seem to offer exactly what I was looking for, a great game which isn’t easily won without some skill and tactics. To me the graphics, sounds and all new found authenticity are just spectacular bonuses. If you’re looking for a cricket game on rainy days, this is the one.
For me this game has crossed the boundary rope without bouncing once.